The vast transformation of the Roman world at the end of antiquity has been a subject of broad scholarly interest for decades, but until now no book has focused specifically on the Iberian Peninsula in the period as seen through an archaeological lens. Given the sparse documentary evidence available, archaeology holds the key to a richer understanding of the developments of the period, and this book addresses a number of issues that arise from analysis of the available material culture, including questions of the process of Christianisation and Islamisation, continuity and abandonment of Roman urban patterns and forms, the end of villas and the growth of villages, and the adaptation of the population and the elites to the changing political circumstances.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preliminary notes
- Preface
- Introduction
- An archaeological perspective on the Iberian peninsula between Rome and the Middle Ages
- Part 1. The Late Roman period
- 1. The settings of late Roman Hispania
- Roman Spain on the eve of late Antiquity
- Roman internal transformations
- External factors
- The beginning of regionalization
- Changing tides in the economy of the late Empire
- 2. New townscapes in the late Empire
- What constituted a late Roman city?
- Fortifications
- The old Roman public buildings
- The fate of urban infrastructure
- New late Roman monuments?
- Suburbanization and de-urbanization
- New domestic architecture
- 3. The economy and the rural world in the late Empire
- Blurring lines between the urbs and the rus
- The late Roman villa: redefinition, expansion and collapse
- Industrial exploitations of the landscape
- The rural societies: Towards a new settlement pattern
- 4. Christianization and Germanization: New evidence for current debates
- Understanding Christianity through archaeology
- Locals and barbarians
- Part 2. The post-Roman period
- 5. Towns and cities under Christian prevalence
- The late Roman urban legacy in the post-Roman world
- The consolidation of a Christian monumentality
- Visigothic state formation and urban renewal
- State intervention in the Byzantine and Suevic territories
- Developments in the seventh and eighth centuries
- Trade and towns in the post-Roman period
- 6. The new rural landscape
- Hillfort occupations
- Farmstead and village networks and other lay rural settlements
- Funerary rituals in the rural world
- Churches, monasteries and ecclesiastical sites
- Other rural sites
- 7. A new material culture: a new society, a new economy
- Snapshots of the new daily life: pottery and glass
- The solid foundations of society and state: building and architecture
- Representing the self and the community: identity and display
- Beyond pots: coins and slates in their economic context
- Part 3. The Early Middle Ages
- 8. The formation of a new Medieval materiality
- The formation of new medieval polities
- Early material traces of the newcomers
- Archaeologies of power
- Archaeologies of religion and identity in al-Andalus
- Changing townscapes
- Transitions in the rural world
- 9. Conclusions
- From the collapse of the Roman Empire to a Brave New World
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2
- Appendix 3
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Figures
- Figure 0.1 Map of the Iberian peninsula, showing the main geographic elements referred to in the text
- Figure 0.2 Graph outlining the span and overlap of the various chronological periods used in the literature dealing with the period 300-900 in the Iberian peninsula
- Figure 0.3 The Hanging Crown of King Swinthila, a circlet of gold encrusted with precious stones and pearls, and a votive declaration in hanging letters (‘Suintilanus Rex offeret’) in gold and cloisonné, together with a hanging cross
- Figure 0.4 Photograph of the Reccopolis excavations in the 1950s, with part of the ‘palace complex’ unearthed
- Figure 0.5 Front cover of the III Reunió d’Arqueologia Cristiana hispànica, held in Menorca in 1988 and published in 1994
- Figure 0.6 Photograph of one of the open-area excavations of the early 21st century: The site of Gózquez (Madrid)
- Figure 1.1 Map of Roman Hispania, and its administration in the late Empire, with main administrative cities (provincial and conventual capitals): Mérida, Córdoba, Tarragona, Écija, Astorga, Braga, Zaragoza, Cartagena, Clunia, Cádiz, Seville, Lugo, Beja,
- Figure 1.2 Photograph of Mount Testaccio, in Rome. This artificial hill was created from the discarded and broken amphorae which brought Hispanic olive oil to Rome as part of the annona during the early Empire
- Figure 1.3 The villa of Carranque, in Toledo, is a perfect example of one of the large palatial rural residences that can be linked to the late Roman Hispanic aristocracy
- Figure 1.4 Late Antique (fourth-fifth century?) decorated plaque with Christian symbols, such as the Chi-Rho with the Alpha and Omega
- Figure 1.5 ‘Line and arrow map’ showing traditional views of routes of invasion and migration of the barbarians during the Migration period or Völkerwanderungszeit
- Figure 1.6 Photograph of the site of Bernardos, in Segovia, a late Roman hillfort which became a local centre of power once the nearby civitas lost its relevance as a regional node. Sites like Bernardos are very common across the north-western corner of
- Figure 1.7 Collection of African Red Slip (ARS) wares from Late Antique contexts in Cartagena. African produce flooded the late Roman Hispanic market and are a characteristic find in Late Antique archaeological contexts
- Figure 2.1 Walls as cities in the Late Antique imagination: Jerusalem is characteristically represented by its city walls in the Madaba mosaic in Jordan
- Figure 2.2 Reinforcement of the walls of Mérida, built during the fifth century with ashlar blocks quarried from public buildings. This late Roman phase of the fortifications was done while preserving the original walls
- Figure 2.3 Walls of Lugo, an example of fourth century refortification in a second-ranking Iberian town, in which parts of the early Roman town had to be left outside the new enclosure
- Figure 2.4 Plan of Cartagena in Late Antiquity (fourth to seventh centuries), indicating the location of the early Roman and reduced, late Roman walled enclosures. Note the large area close to the forum which was left outside the new fortified area
- Figure 2.5 Photograph of the excavated remains of the circus at Tarragona
- Figure 2.6 Photograph of the collapsed remains of one of the aqueducts of Baelo Claudia, damaged by an earthquake during the fourth century and never repaired
- Figure 2.7 Late Roman phase of the forum nymphaeum or monumental fountain of Valencia, at the site of l’Almoina. The fountain was restored in the fourth century and kept in used, together with the aqueduct into the fifth, and probably the sixth century a
- Figure 2.8 Reconstructed plan of the ‘palatine’ complex at Cercadilla, in Córdoba
- Figure 2.9 Plan of the late Roman Francolí Christian complex, in Tarragona, with the funerary basilicas and the early episcopal complex
- Figure 2.10 Plan of Tarragona, indicating the location of the main settled areas: The upper town, the lower town, and the harbor suburb
- Figure 2.11 Plan of Alicante, with the location of the sites of Lucentum and the new, late Roman commercial hub at Benalúa
- Figure 2.12 The domus of the Mithraeum in Mérida, with its cosmogonic polychrome mosaic representing the gods of the Heavens, Earth, and the Underworld
- Figure 2.13 The ‘House of the columns’ (fourth to early sixth century), excavated at the Plaza de la Encarnación in Seville. An example of a late Roman aristocratic domus, linked to civic elites. The house has got a late Roman ‘oecus-type’ layout, is dec
- Figure 3.1 Late Roman industrial establishment built inside one of the old forum buildings in Valencia, with space for storage, food-processing, and a pressing vat
- Figure 3.2 Late Roman burials in the forum of Valencia: Inhumations covered with tiles which show a change from early Roman practices of cremation and specific burial areas by main roads
- Figure 3.3 Photograph of a fourth century Christian sarcophagus depicting Christ as the Good Shepherd. Currently used as an altar in Écija
- Figure 3.4 Photograph of one of the mosaic panels at the villa of Noheda
- Figure 3.5 Reconstruction of the villa of La Olmeda, according to Abásolo and Martínez 2012
- Figure 3.6 Plan of the excavations at El Pelícano, where the old villa has been replaced by a series of dispersed minor settlements, but which are still linked to the old estate
- Figure 3.7 Table showing the percentage of furnished burials in late Roman rural cemeteries
- Figure 4.1 Photograph of the Chi-Rho identified inside the cistern of the domus of the Sala Decumanus in Mérida, the earliest known depiction of Christian symbolism in the Iberian peninsula
- Figure 4.2 The patena from Castulo, a glass offering open form with the image of Christ in majesty, discovered during the excavations of 2014
- Figure 4.3 Late sixth century Christian funerary inscription inscribed in a reused public document, currently in the Museum of Seville
- Figure 4.4 The altar slab from Casa Herrera, a sixth century sigmatic mensa with a commemorative inscription
- Figure 4.5 The Quiroga Chi-Rho, a Late Antique elite Christian liturgic dedication in marble
- Figure 4.6 Altar from the church of El Gatillo, as it stands today
- Figure 4.7 Two cloisonée Visigothic eagle brooches retrieved from the site of Alovera, and which are now at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid
- Figure 5.1 Photograph of the walls of Veleia, showing the construction technique used, with large blocks of stone and reused column drums
- Figure 5.2 Plan of the Visigothic phase of the Domus of the Marbles, in Mérida. The old domus has been subdivided into various single-family dwellings around a communal courtyard
- Figure 5.3 Photograph of one of the pillars of the aqueduct of Los Milagros, in Mérida, apparently restored without success in the Visigothic period
- Figure 5.4 Reconstructed plan of the episcopal complex of Barcelona, with its various phases, indicating the location of the episcopal buildings (hall, cathedral, baptistery, palace, baths) and the ‘count’s palace’
- Figure 5.5 Reconstructed plan of the episcopal complex of Valencia, at the site of La Almoina
- Figure 5.6 Mosaic of the ‘Opposing Lions’, from the porticus of the suburban Christian complex of Mértola
- Figure 5.7a Axonometric reconstruction of the building identified as the xenodochium of Masona in Mérida
- Figure 5.7b Photo showing the existing remains of the xenodochium, with the reconstructed location of the marble pilasters and the disposition of the apsed hall and the open courtyards
- Figure 5.8 Remains of the Late Antique public (?) structure built by the temple for the Imperial cult in the forum of Mérida
- Figure 5.9 Schematic plan of the Visigothic civil administrative complex (palace and citadel) identified in Córdoba
- Figure 5.10 General plan of the excavations at Reccopolis, highlighting the location of the palace complex (conjunto palatino) and the workshop area
- Figure 5.11 Plan of the excavations at the site of El Tolmo de Minateda, identified with the Visigothic episcopal see of Eio
- Figure 5.12 Plan of Toledo, indicating the location of the lower meadow (‘Vega baja’) suburb, with the location of the main Late Antique sites
- Figure 5.13 Plan of one of the main buildings identified next to the basilica of Guarrazar
- Figure 5.14 Plan of the Byzantine quarter excavated at the Roman theatre of Cartagena, which includes various dwelling units
- Figure 5.15 Plan of the Suevic ‘acropolis’ of Falperra near Braga
- Figure 6.1 Extensions excavated in some hillfort sites of the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula
- Figure 6.2 Air photograph of the excavations at Navasangil
- Figure 6.3 Walls at the site of Castro Ventosa
- Figure 6.4 Defensive system at Tedeja
- Figure 6.5 Plan of the excavations at El Bovalar
- Figure 6.6 Stone-footed building at El Pelícano
- Figure 6.7 Table indicating the relative proportion between the number of sunken featured buildings excavated per site (first column) with the overall excavated area (second column). The result shows it is necessary to excavate quite large open areas in
- Figure 6.8 Plan of the excavations at Gózquez
- Figure 6.9 Aerial photography of the site of Zaballa
- Figure 6.10 Pit burial at the site of La Mata del Palomar
- Figure 6.11 Plan of the excavations at Duratón
- Figure 6.12 Table depicting the different proportions of furnished burials and inhumations habillées in various excavated communal cemeteries
- Figure 6.13 Aerial photography of Villanueva de Soportilla
- Figure 6.14 Plan of the excavations of Casa Herrera, with its two phases: In dark grey the original AD 500 funerary basilica; in lighter grey the late sixth century expansion, linked to episcopal intervention
- Figure 6.15 Front of the church Sain John in Baños. As it stands today, the building is not Visigothic, but it could be built with reused material from an earlier Visigothic church
- Figure 6.16 Plan of the rural ‘Visigothic’ palace of Pla de Nadal (Valencia), as excavated in the 1970s
- Figure 7.1 Rim and shoulder from a small cooking pot (‘olla’) from the excavations at Casa Herrera. Thrown on a slow wheel, and made with unrefined clay and large inclusions, it is a perfect example of pottery made in the sixth and seventh centuries
- Figure 7.2 Glass bowls and glass typologies from Reccopolis
- Figure 7.3 Fifth-century wall in Mérida at the site of Morería, where the ashlar reinforcement was made out of various reused blocks (tomb markers, column drums, theatre seats, etc.)
- Figure 7.4 Opus signinum from the aqueduct of Reccopolis. Dated to the late sixth century, this opus signinum uses large crushed fragments of tile, rather than the ground and pulverized pot fragments that characterized early Roman signinum
- Figure 7.5 Visigothic buildings from the Vega Baja suburb in Toledo, where most of the buildings were built with stone foundations (bound with clay, not mortar in this case) and the elevations would have been in mudbrick or trampled earth
- Figure 7.6 Stone quarries located next to the aqueduct of Reccopolis. They were probably used to obtain blocks for the construction of the aqueduct itself
- Figure 7.7 Sunken Feature Building (Grubenhaus) from the Visigothic period. It has the main characteristics that can be seen across Europe: It is dug into the ground and has post-holes for the vertical uprights
- Figure 7.8 Various typologies of lyre-shaped (liriforme) brooches from the south east
- Figure 7.9 Casa Herrera pilaster; a failed attempt to create a round column out of a prismatic block of marble without the necessary tools
- Figure 7.10 Marble pilasters from Mérida, now in the water cistern of the Umayyad citadel. Carved out of reused blocks, these pilasters show the traditional geometric and vegetal motifs that characterize Visigothic sculpture
- Figure 7.11 Golden tremissis of Athanagild from Reccopolis now at the National Archaeology Museum, Madrid
- Figure 7.12 Byzantine copper coin, minted in Cartagena: One of the few indicators for the circulation of newly-minted small currency
- Figure 7.13 Graph depicting the evolution of gold content in Visigothic coins per reign. It is noticeable how the steady and standard production in the period of state formation contrasts sharply with the decline that follows it in the eighth century, wi
- Figure 7.14 Reproduction of one of the Visigothic slates recovered from Diego Álvaro, now in the Museum in Guarrazar
- Figure 8.1 Umayyad coin dated to the year 93H, with a Latin legend with the mint mark for al-Andalus (the star and the legend SPN, for Spania)
- Figure 8.2 Arabic lead seal dated to 100-102H, bearing the legend ‘in the name of God, this is the treaty [sulh] of / Abd Allah ibn Mali’
- Figure 8.3 Pottery jug from the Islamic phases of Casa Herrera, Mérida. Note the characteristic high handle, but with a fabric still reminiscent from the earlier phase
- Figure 8.4 Ceramic typologies from South-Eastern Spain in the late eighth century (according to Carvajal López 2009): a-c, j) cooking pots; d-f) ARS imitations; g) jar; h-i) storage; k-o) new types of cooking pots
- Figure 8.5 Plan of the Umayyad ‘palaces’ excavated at the site of Morería, in Mérida, which were built on top of the domus of the Marbles
- Figure 8.6a Photograph of the fortress giving access to the alcazaba of Mérida, including its dedicatory inscription. This Umayyad fortress was built to keep the peace in the city after various years of rebellion by the local muwalladun
- Figure 8.6b Plan of the alcazaba of Mérida, showing the entrance fort, which controlled access to the whole city, and the location of the cistern
- Figure 8.7 View of the settlement of Zorita from the hill of Reccopolis
- Figure 8.8 Plan of early Umayyad Murcia, a new urban foundation to substitute the muwallad stronghold of Eio
- Figure 8.9 Plan of the early remains at Oviedo (according to García de Castro and Ríos 2016, figure 15), indicating the location of the main early medieval monuments: 1) Monastery of Saint Pelagius; 2) Monastery of Saint Vincent; 3) Saint Mary and Royal
- Figure 8.10 Santa María del Naranco church, near Oviedo. It was originally a royal chapel built by King Ramiro I in a completely new architectonic style, taking advantage of the vaulting techniques reintroduced into the Iberian peninsula by the Umayyads
- Figure 8.11a Photograph of the interior of the Mosque of Córdoba, showing the forest of columns and the rows of superimposed arches. The mosque became not only the main religious and political centre of Islam in al-Andalus, but also the key dynastic monu
- Figure 8.11b Plan of the Mosque, as it was in its original phase. Originally built by Abd al-Rahman I, it went through major remodelations and expansion, including by Abd al-Rahman II in the mid-ninth century
- Figure 8.12 Plan of the maqbara of Lucentum, located on top of the old foum and dated to between the seventh and tenth centuries, indicating the continuity of population in the area of Lucentum despite the abandonment of the old urban site
- Figure 8.13 One of the Arabic graffiti inscribed on the columns of the basilica of Casa Herrera (ninth century)
- Figure 8.14 Plan of the excavations at the suburb of Saqunda in Córdoba, located on a bend of the river, south of the city and across the main bridge
- Figure 8.15 Schematic plan of an early Umayyad rural settlement from the hillslopes in the Vega of Granada (by Miguel Jiménez Puertas, used with permission). A: Village with a dispersed pattern of settlement; N: Necropolis; C: Path with different possibl
- Figure 8.16 Site plan of Alegría-Dulantzi
- Figure 8.17 Stratigraphy of the agrarian terrace of El Manso (Asturias)
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